Capriccio
by ReachForTheSky
Summary: To me, Annie Leonhart was like an angel on a pedestal, utterly perfect and impossible to reach. It didn't help that I might just be the most socially awkward creature on the planet. But all of a sudden Annie offered me a chance I never thought I'd get - to play in a string quartet with her. That winter, as we played in perfect harmony, I somehow fell in love. Aruani, college AU.
1. A Lot of Maybes (and Annie Leonhart)

**Hello, all! Here's a violin AU I've been playing around with for a while. Just go with all the orchestra language, it doesn't really affect the story anyways. Only thing to know is that first chair means you're the best of that section.**

* * *

It was almost ten o'clock, and I wanted nothing more than some of Mikasa's cooking and twelve hours of sleep. It didn't look like either wish would be fulfilled, though. Most likely, I'd be home by midnight and have some microwave ramen for dinner.

"No, I want you to extend your fourth finger," the conductor, Mr. Smith, was yelling at the first violins. "Disregard what the music says!"

There was a general mumble of reluctant agreement, and they all began scratching out the markings.

"And you, second violins!" Mr. Smith turned his attention to us, and I immediately straightened. "You're completely out of sync! You've got to follow Arlert here, he's in first chair for a reason."

I gulped, feeling the stares of the whole section settle on me. Hitch Dreyse, my stand partner, huffed quietly. It was a well-known fact (at least to me) that Hitch was convinced that she deserved the first chair spot, even if it was just for second violins. It wasn't like I was first chair, first violin. No, that spot was reserved for Annie Leonhart.

She sat straight as a board directly to the conductor's left, having long finished marking the corrections in her music. She didn't move at all, save for her fingers darting across her violin as she fingered out the music silently.

"Come on, one more time!" Smith rapped the baton on his music stand. "If you do it right, I'll let you leave."

_That _got everyone's attention. Mr. Smith raised his baton and we all readied our instruments. At his direction, we played once through the passage he'd been grueling us on for the past half-hour. Apart from the fact that the violas missed half the notes and the second violins refused to play together (this was why I hated being in first chair; I couldn't lead these people for his life) it went quite well. Really.

"Good enough, I suppose," Smith said with a sigh. "You're lucky I'm too fed up to keep teaching. Run along now."

"Wait," a low, soft voice said. Heads turned to the source of the noise - it was Annie, who had stood up and seemed to be addressing the whole orchestra.

"Ah, that's right," Smith said, "Annie wanted to mention something."

I might have groaned if I wasn't scared stiff of her wrath.

"As many of you know, this college has a student-run string quartet. One of our violinists graduated last year, so we've been looking for a new one. I'll be playing first, so if you don't mind playing second come talk to me, Bertholdt, or Reiner."

Of course nobody would mind playing second violin. Just the honor of playing in the college's only string quartet - with _Annie Leonhart _\- would be enough to satisfy almost anybody. (Except maybe Hitch.)

Annie sat down, and the rest of the orchestra took this as a cue to leave. I gathered up my music and watched Annie's bun disappear into the sea of musicians. I swore I could see her gaze sweep backwards and brush over me before turning to Reiner and Bertholdt.

What was that? As far as I knew, Annie didn't have the faintest idea of who I was or even how I played. Maybe she had mistaken me for one of her friends - people did think I was a girl half the time anyways. Maybe it was just an accident. But despite the improbability, I couldn't help but hope that Annie knew full well who I was and had actually _deigned _to look at me. Me, the lowly Armin Arlert!

"So? Are you gonna do it?" It was Hitch, trying to sound like she didn't care. "Join the quartet, I mean."

"I don't know," I said thoughtfully. "I don't want to embarrass myself."

"You?" Hitch snorted. "If you think you're not good enough, the rest of the orchestra need not even try."

"Not true," I mumbled. "I mean, there are so many first violins -"

"You know Smith didn't put the better players in first violin," she interrupted. "You're the best second violin, therefore the second-best violinist in this orchestra."

She walked away without another word, her ears bright red. I stared after her, dumbfounded, then sighed and went to pack up my violin. If I hurried to the dorm, maybe I could avoid ramen.

* * *

"So what do you think? Should I do it?" I asked my roommate, Eren Jaeger, over a dinner of ramen (of course). We'd ended up together last year only because both of us forgot to request a roomie, but it had worked out so well that we decided to room again sophomore year.

"'ow shou' I know?" Eren replied with his mouth full. "Don' know nothin' bout classical shit."

I didn't even try to understand him. "Swallow first."

Eren finished his mouthful and slurped noisily (probably on purpose.) "Well, Annie's a grouch. Never seen her smile. Or express any emotion, for that matter."

"It's about the music, not about Annie. Besides, Bertholdt and Reiner seem like nice guys."

"Ha, have you seen Bertholdt? He's always sweating like the thought of saying one word scares him to no end."

I had to laugh; it was true, after all. The first-chair viola player rarely spoke and usually huddled behind Reiner. In fact, I'd only ever seen him talking to the burly blond cellist and Annie, on occasion.

"Your playing is amazing," Eren said, sounding serious all of a sudden. "But you're always being drowned out. If you're in a quartet, maybe someone will actually hear your music, and well… maybe it'll reach them like it reached me."

I stared at my friend, who had just blurted out this deep speech while twirling ramen around a plastic fork. I almost began a half-hearted explanation of why you weren't _drowned out _in orchestra, you were a part of something bigger, but I found myself wondering when the last time I played solo was - a high-school recital, probably - and how much I wanted that applause to be just for me.

Of course, those were stupid reasons. I shouldn't want to be in a quartet for fame, no, it should be for the music. Musical experiences.

(I'm pretty bad at lying, even to myself.)

"Did that convince you?" Eren asked with a grin.

"I-"

He shrugged and threw his paper plate at the trash, missing widely. "I'm not great at talking fancy bullshit, but I suppose it's worth it sometimes."

I opened my mouth then closed it, like a fish out of water, wondering for the millionth time if Eren was either a really good liar or really honest. Pondering that baffling paradox that would probably haunt me until my dying day, I went to pick up his plate.

"You know, I sometimes honestly wonder if you really want the best for me or you're been bullshitting this whole time for the fun of it," I said, sitting down at my desk.

"Oh, shut up," Eren laughed, plopping himself down at his desk. "If your violin sounded like ugly screeching I'd tell you so."

Why don't we settle on _really honest. _

I shook my head. "Sometimes I wonder what was going on in my head when I requested you for a roommate again."

His only response was the tapping of his fingers on his laptop and a sideways smirk in my direction. I rolled my eyes and pulled out my theory homework, prepared for another late night caused by Smith's tendency to extend rehearsals way late.

I set to work, but my focus was kind of off. Way off. I kept seeing hooked noses and blue eyes and pale, elegant fingers, no matter how I tried to focus on my work.

The diminished seventh _-_

"_If you don't mind playing second-"_

Of E-flat major is composed of -

"_Come talk to me, Bertholdt, or Reiner-"_

"E-flat, G-flat , A, and C, therefore… " I said out loud, trying to silence Annie's soft voice inside my head. "Wait, that's basic theory. I need something more concrete."

"Stop talking to yourself, I'm trying to write an English essay," Eren grumbled.

I imagined gluing my lips together and set to work, but to no avail. Maybe it was the late hour, maybe it was the ramen, or maybe it was just Annie's eyes meeting mine over and over again like a video clip on replay, but I crawled through the packet at an agonizing pace. Eren kept typing away, unaware of my anguish, and so my writing got slower and slower as the hours wore on and so did my patience.

Finally, at around midnight, I just couldn't take it anymore and I forgot all about the invisible glue that was supposed to be keeping me silent.

"That's it. I'm auditioning, and I won't go back on that," I resolved. "That's what you wanted me to do, right, Eren?"

His only response was a gentle snore.

And maybe it was the late hour, maybe it was the ramen, or maybe it was the prospect of seeing Annie again, but I broke into laughter that filled our tiny dorm room.

Then Eren woke up, and you can guess how that went.

* * *

**Sorry for the short chapter but it just decided to end. I have three chapters written, I'll post the next in a week, or sooner if enough people ask. Faves, follows, and reviews are much appreciated :)**


	2. A Muddy Spectacle (and Annie Leonhart)

**Thanks for all the faves, follows, and reviews! Here's a link to all the music, including stuff from chapters I haven't posted yet - **** 8tracks dot com/reachforthesky/capriccio (. instead of dot)**

* * *

It was raining the next day, and I had the misfortune of having to cross pretty much the whole campus on my way to class. With my hood pulled up and my book bag huddled to my chest, I hurried out into the rain.

It seemed to get worse and worse as the minutes ticked by, so it was practically a downpour by the time I was halfway to class. I should have really brought an umbrella, but I'd lost mine in the sewers last semester (long story, don't ask). Consoling myself that I was almost there, I hunkered down and prepared for the final stretch.

And then I was lying face-down in the mud.

I blinked the rain out of my eyes and realized I had been walking too close to the grass and had slipped. That explained the lack of fervent apologies, then. Sighing to myself, I tried to stand up, only to fall right back down with a _plunk. _I staggered to my feet once more, took about half a step, and fell on my face.

There was a small crowd watching me now, and I swore I could hear someone giggle,

"Wait, don't help him. Let's see how long it takes before he gets on his feet."

I wanted to die right then and there. I thought I'd escaped routine embarrassment after graduating, but I guess I was still subject to the same old torture. Be it in school, college, or wherever, a dork is treated like a dork. If I could become the mud, maybe I'd blend in so well that they'd eventually leave.

"What are you doing? Lying in the mud like it's your bed?" a vaguely familiar voice said from above me.

I lifted my head and found myself staring right into Annie Leonhart's face. The crowd behind her was frowning, like she'd ruined their joke (which she had) but the stoic blonde paid no heed.

"Let's go," she said, and offered me a hand.

Still kind of stunned, I took it, and she hauled me up with surprising strength.

"You look disgusting," she informed me, looking me up and down.

"Don't I always?" I answered, offering a half-smile and almost breaking into tears in the process. It's a good thing it was raining, because I was prone to crying and Annie Leonhart was the last person I wanted to embarrass myself in front of. Then again, I'd just face-planted in the mud - there probably wasn't much worse to do than that.

"I don't think you want to go to class like that," she continued. My heart sank - today there was a lecture I had been especially looking forward to.

"I'll just head back to my dorm and change. I'll miss some class, but better late than never, right?"

Annie looked at me for a long while, like she was appraising me, and I swear I started to quiver under the force of that icy stare. Finally, she spoke up,

"I'll come with you."

I kind of just spluttered around for a while, still dazed from eating mud and not really knowing what benefit Annie Leonhart would have from skipping class for me.

Come to think of it, did she even know my name?

"I don't have class for a couple hours, I was just going to meet up with Reiner and Bertholdt, but that doesn't really matter."

I actually pinched myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

"Wh-why?" I stammered.

"Because you look like you might just break down and dissolve into a puddle of mortification - understandable, given your little stunt back there - and I try my best to stop people from dissolving."

"Is that code for 'because I'm nice'?"

"Absolutely not," she contradicted me. "If I'm nice, you're a tall, graceful, masterpiece of a human being."

I ignored the jibe. "Then, why?"

"I already told you," she said. "Now hurry up."

I didn't really have a choice.

And so we set off, two strangers sloshing through the rain together like it was the most natural thing in the world.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, I was somehow sitting at across from Annie at Starbucks, sipping a caramel latte and marveling at the brand-new umbrella on the chair beside me.

"First off, don't thank me," she said as she twirled the stirrer in her espresso. "It was an extra. So why do you still look like you're going to dissolve?"

"I've never cut class before," I admitted sheepishly.

"Never?" she said with a hint of incredulity. "Not even in high school?"

"No," I mumbled. "If you haven't noticed by now, I'm kind of studious."

She grunted in assent. "GPA?"

"Oh, um, 4.0." It was always awkward for me to talk about grades, because I invariably ended up making whoever I was talking to feel bad. But I supposed I didn't have to worry now, after I'd just made such a fool out of myself.

She whistled softly. "Unless your major is a pushover, that's pretty damn good."

I laughed, trying to seem modest. "Well, what's your major? I'm guessing something about music, considering your skill, right?"

Her face immediately darkened. "Business."

"O-oh," I said. "Then music is just a hobby."

She made another grunting noise. "Whatever."

Annie was apathetic on the best of days, from what I could tell, but this was a whole new level. Afraid that I'd touched a nerve, I switched the subject.

"I want to audition for the string quartet."

Oh, wow. _Wow. _Nice going, Armin. You awkward little shit.

It seemed to have done the job, though, because Annie was sufficiently distracted. "Sure," she said, pulling out a piece of paper and a pen seemingly out of nowhere. I couldn't help but notice how many other names were written in tiny black letters.

"Your name?" she asked.

"Oh. Um." How had we gone a whole conversation without so much as exchanging names? "Armin Arlert."

"Could you spell that for me?" she continued, professional all of a sudden.

I couldn't help but watch her face for any sign of interest or recognition as I spelled out my name, but it seemed like I was just another face in the crowd to her.

"Thanks," she finished, clicking her pen. "I'm holding private auditions, since everyone has different schedules and I never really expected that many auditions for a student-run thing anyway. Can you come to practice room 14 at 6 PM? Reiner, Bertholdt, and I will be there."

"Sounds good," I answered, making a mental note. "Just asking - how many auditions have you gotten, exactly?"

"Twenty-four. Auditions close in four days."

My heart nearly stopped. How did I even stand a chance?

"Although, to be honest, I'd rather be a three-person quartet than accept some of them," she snorted. "How they even managed to get into the orchestra is beyond me."

I gulped. Maybe I shouldn't have signed up after all - I'd probably just end up on Annie's shit list.

"I've never heard you play, but Mikasa says you're worth considering," Annie said offhandedly, glancing up at me.

"Wait, wait. You know Mikasa?"

I'd gotten introduced to Mikasa through Eren, who were adoptive siblings, and we'd somehow all ended up hanging out together. She had an unflappable personality to rival Annie's, but was a gooey mess when it came to Eren. Whenever he got into trouble (which was a lot) she was right there to beat up whoever so much as pointed a finger in his direction. Heck, she had even followed him to college. They were so close, it sometimes left me feeling a bit like a third wheel. Mikasa really was only friends with me through Eren, but it was better than nothing.

Annie sipped her espresso. "Yeah, we're roomies. She never told you?"

"No…"

"Well, anyway, she says you're really good. I just didn't have a face for the name until you planted it the mud for me to look at."

I chuckled. "Good thing I did, then."

And I could swear I saw a smile flit across her face before she sucked out the last of her coffee and stood up.

"6 PM, then. Don't disappoint." She raised her hand in a fleeting wave and stepped out into the rain like it didn't bother her one bit.

I pressed the button on the umbrella's handle and watched it spring open. As I twirled it around in circles, I almost hoped that Annie would turn around and chide me for being so immature.

* * *

I paced up and down the length of our dorm at five-thirty that evening, rambling on to Eren, who was checking his texts and half-listening to my endless talking.

"So I can either play the Caprice 24 by Paganini, which is really hard but will definitely please her, but I might mess up. Do you think I should do Mendelssohn instead? I played Tchaikovsky for my orchestra auditions, should I play that again?"

I wasn't really expecting him to answer, but saying my problems out loud helped me solve them, and annoying Eren wasn't really a big deal after a year and two months of sharing a room.

"Do the _Schindler's List_," Eren spoke up unexpectedly. "I like it better than all those concertios and sonotos you brag about."

"_Schindler's List_?" I asked. "Are you sure you're thinking of the right one?"

He looked up from his phone. "The theme from the Nazi movie, right? You liked the song so much that you went and learned it."

I frowned. "That was just for fun, It doesn't even count as classical music."

Eren shrugged. "It's not really a formal audition, and besides, it sure as hell _sounds _classical."

I bit my lip. Eren, Mikasa and I had seen _Schindler's List _one Friday night a month or so ago, when they finally relented to my supposedly nerdy movie pick. As soon as the main theme had started playing, all I could hear was how it would sound on my violin. And so I had procured sheets early the next morning and practiced until people started yelling at me to play something else.

"I guess I could," I said slowly. "Are you sure it sounds good?"

"Positive," he assured me. "Just, don't mention that the movie's TV-MA to Bertholdt. He'll probably sweat all over the judgement notes or something."

"Alright, alright," I laughed. "Look, I better get going, okay?"

"Good luck," Eren said as he took out his phone. "Make that Annie Leonhart feel something for once."

"Don't know if that's possible, but I'll try," I said, picking up my violin case. "See you then."

"Bye," he called out as I shut the door.

The music building was right next to our dorm building, so a lot of the students living here were either music majors or just really loved music. There were practice rooms in the dorms, but the music building rooms were soundproof and much better quality.

I tried to distract myself as I shoved myself against the door, thinking about whether I could persuade Eren to go out to dinner with me or if we'd be stuck with ramen again. Apparently I was pretty good at diverting my thoughts, because I didn't even realize I'd walked right past room 14 and was now standing in front of 23.

Of course, at that exact moment, Annie decided to walk in the building, carrying a clipboard. I sidled over to room 14 and got there just before her, and although she gave me a quizzical look, she didn't ask me what I was doing all the way down the hall. Maybe she thought I couldn't read. No, that's stupid. I'm stupid.

"What are you waiting for?" Annie's soft voice brought me out of my mental conversation. "Let's go."

I followed her into the practice room, which was hardly big enough for the four of us. Reiner and Bertholdt were nowhere to be seen, but then again, it was still only 5:50.

Annie leaned against the wall and clicked her pen. "Reiner and Bertholdt will be here soon; get ready and tune while you're waiting."

"Okay," I said, and fumbled to click open the lock on my case. My hands were shaking so badly that I could barely fit the key in, and when it finally snapped open - just my luck - the D string lay limp and detached.

"My D string's broken," I told her anxiously.

"Well, then restring it," she said crossly. "Don't you have any spares?"

"Um-"

She didn't even give me a chance to finish my sentence. "Alright, give me a few minutes," she said, and marched out of the room.

"I was going to buy new spares tomorrow," I told my violin dolefully. "You just had to break, didn't you? This basically ruined my chances of getting in. She probably wrote me off as irresponsible already."

There was nothing I could do about it. Resignedly, I took out my bow and began applying rosin, half-expecting all the hair to fall out.

Just as I finished, Annie returned with a small plastic bag in her right hand. "Here," she said, tossing it towards me. "It's almost six, and tuning a new string will take a while."

"I'll be quick," I mumbled, and set about restringing my violin.

I'd done this countless times before, but there was something different about having Annie watching me over the top of her clipboard. For all knew, she could be taking notes about how well I restrung my violin.

Reiner and Bertholdt arrived just as I began tuning, and I swear Bertholdt had to stop himself from covering his ears. As it was, both of them winced at the sound of my out-of-tune violin, and gave Annie looks like, _you think this kid even has a chance?_

As you might guess, that didn't exactly quell my nervousness.

Somehow, though, I managed to tune with three pairs of eyes noting my every move and darting up to the clock - 6:02, 6:04 (whatever happened to 6:03?).

"O-okay, I'm ready," I announced, setting my violin on my shoulder.

"What're you playing?" Reiner asked.

"Ah - uh-"

No going back now.

"The theme from the 1993 movie _Schindler's List, _composed by John Williams."

Contrary to what Eren had said, Bertholdt did not start sweating. "Oh, I like that movie," he said. "Go for it."

Annie tapped her pen on the clipboard and gave me a piercing stare, like she expected nothing less than perfection from me.

I inhaled, exhaled, and began to play.

* * *

** I haven't watched **_**Schindler's List**_**, but the theme is beautiful. For all you musicians out there, is there any piece in particular you'd recommend/want featured for solo violin, orchestra, or a string quartet? I need a lot more songs and I'm only well versed in piano pieces, so it'd be great to get some suggestions. Any and all reviews, faves, and follows are much appreciated!**


	3. The Cupcake Shop (and Annie Leonhart)

**This is dedicated to all the piano evaluations, competitions, and recitals that have made me quaver in my sweaty black flats for years on end. Poetic, I know. (Especially over the past week, an evaluation and a follow-up recital killed me, ugh.)**

* * *

I've read a lot about performers' experience while playing - their exhilaration, joy, et cetera. But hearing 'I switched to _piano _and _andante, _bringing a feeling of calm' or 'the gentle vibrato added a subtle undertone to the music' is really just them making stuff up. Sure, maybe their vibrato _did _add a subtle undertone or whatever, but I can attest to the fact that they probably never took notice of it while performing.

I don't know about professionals or those completely levelheaded freaks who never get nervous, but for normal people, performance is kind of surreal. Be it in front of three or three hundred people, there's not really much going through my head except stuff like _I am actually performing what _and _focus focus focusfocusfocus. _There are irrational fears that crop up, too - once, I began wondering if I knew the next few notes for a piece I'd practiced for four months.

At least today it was a small music room, and not a concert hall, and at least the _Schindler's List _theme was something I knew and loved like an old friend. I was able to play it through somewhat coherently. Now, I couldn't tell you if I played it with musical expression, because I honestly don't remember much. But I'm pretty sure I felt something stir inside of me as I hit that final, trembling high note.

I exhaled shakily, set my violin under my arm, and looked at them.

Bertholdt wasn't shaking his leg or tapping his fingers, and his pure stillness was more than any stuttered words could tell me. Reiner's face was inscrutable, as if he had absolutely no opinion. The epitome of professional.

Then, Annie.

Her eyes were wide, almost imperceptibly so, and perhaps I was just looking for recognition that wasn't there, but her mouth opened in the tiniest little 'o' as she let out a soft sigh.

"Thank you," she breathed, no emotion betrayed in her words. "One of us will call you over after orchestra once we have the results."

They were all sitting primly, looking at me pointedly, and it finally hit me that I should probably leave. "Oh! Um, thanks. Bye."

And I was off, grasping on to the handle of my case as hard as I could in case my sweaty hands slipped in excitement.

I almost tripped over myself again as I hurried over to my dorms - although the rain had let up, the sidewalks were still slick with the morning's downpour - and practically forced myself against the door. Turned out it wasn't fully shut, though, and so I staggered into the dorm in another unsightly spectacle.

"Hey, Er-" I stopped mid-sentence and glanced around. The room was empty.

I had forgotten, in my nerve-wracked state, that Eren had band rehearsal today. No, not _band, _like an orchestra but with trumpets and oboes, but a modern band with guitars and stuff. Him, Mikasa, and a few others formed a little group last year that somehow grew into a band, and Eren was the lead singer. To be honest, he was a bit of a diva sometimes (actually, a lot of the time), so standing in front of the mic was a good place for him - and as a plus, he got paid.

Since I had no one to vent to about the audition, I got a start on my homework. Strangely enough, now that it was over, I was way more focused than before I'd even decided to audition. An eerily calm feeling settled over me, and I plowed through my work at a steady pace.

"_Thank you."_

"_Thank you."_

"_Thank you."_

This time, though, Annie's voice was not an incessant whine in my head, but a soft ballad that carried me onward like a boat riding on gentle waves.

Ah, metaphors. (Or rather, similes.)

* * *

This calm didn't last much longer than that a few hours, though. I woke up in the middle of the night convinced that I had forgotten to play half the audition and left my violin on Annie's nose. After that, it only got worse. I wasn't sure I would be able to survive the next few days, to be honest.

"Haven't you done this sort of thing before?" Eren asked me as we, Mikasa included, stepped inside a relatively unknown bagel place we frequented.

"Yeah, but nothing was really riding on it," I said as I pulled a container of cream cheese from the fridge-thingy. (What do you even call the place where you keep cream cheese, anyway?) "College auditions were probably the only thing that were worse."

"Really? Not even all the orchestra auditions you did? Competitions? Come on, Armin, you just want to impress Annie," Eren said with a smirk before launching into a detailed bagel order.

"Quartets are different!" I protested. "It has nothing to do with Annie!"

The lady at the counter was eyeing me pointedly, and only then did I realize that I had been speaking to Eren and Mikasa's retreating backs.

"Oh - um - I'd like a bagel, please."

She gave me a weary look. "Is that so? We only sell cupcakes, sorry."

"What? But this is a bagel shop!" I spluttered.

The lady facepalmed.

"He'll get one poppy bagel, sliced and toasted." Eren called from the cash register. "No cupcakes, if that's okay."

"_Thank _you," she said with a grateful smile. "I was beginning to doubt my sense of humor."

_Oh. _Sarcasm.

"You are extremely lame," Eren told me matter-of-factly as I joined him at the register.

"Thank you," I grumbled.

The lady at the counter shoved the guy at the register aside so she could _personally _hand Eren our order.

"Here you are," she said brightly. "Enjoy your day. Oh, and can I have your number?"

She said it so naturally, it barely registered until Mikasa's jaw dropped and she gave him a deathly glare.

"Oh, I'm sorry, are you two together?" she asked, barely even fazed.

"No, she's my sister," Eren answered vaguely. Turned off by his lack of interest, she went back to the counter with a pout on her face. The three of us left with our bagels like nothing had happened.

I tried to pretend like the whole incident hadn't bothered me, but it was one of many all-too-similar occurrences. I somehow made a fool of myself, the girl looked at me like I was an idiot, and then started flirting with Eren.

I knew I wasn't popular by any stretch, but my friends were just so perfect. There wasn't anything Mikasa couldn't do, for instance. The band, grades, sports, not to mention all the guys (and girls) falling head over heels for her. Compared to them, I was just a violin geek. Not the most comforting thought.

"Listen, Armin," Eren began tentatively. "It doesn't matter. You know I'm not going to get together with any of them anyway-"

"I'm okay," I cut him off. "Being cool is far too much work, to be frank."

He laughed. "We all like you the way you are, so don't worry 'bout it."

"Sure thing."

We continued in near silence until I split up with Eren and Mikasa, who had the next class together. I was just waving goodbye over my shoulder when Mikasa, who'd been dead silent all morning, spoke up.

"Armin."

I turned around. "Yeah?"

"Annie mentioned that you played well. 'Met my expectations', to quote her."

My heart started breakdancing (probably better than I could). "R-really?"

"Didn't want to get your hopes up, but your shitty mood this morning warranted it." Her lips curved upward in a rare half smile. "It's going to be fine."

My vision started getting blurry, so I hightailed it out of there.

I kept bumping into Annie over the next few days. Before standing up at orchestra that one day, she was just another unreachable person, another piece of perfection that couldn't even be compared to the mess that was me. But after that whole mud incident and the audition, she seemed to be everywhere. I grew accustomed to her various greetings, and spent more time than I probably should guessing why she chose those words. Most of the time, it was just a casual "hi" that dropped into the air and floated gently over to me. By the time I caught the soft greeting, she was usually gone.

"Yo, Armin," she would say sometimes, if she was trying to seem cool for whoever was passing by, never her close friends but sometimes other orchestra members, someone she wanted to impress. (If she really wanted impress someone with just a greeting, maybe she should have chosen someone cooler to say hi to.)

Sometimes, when she was preoccupied, or involved in another conversation. she would just nod and shoot a wave my way. I wasn't offended at all, as a matter of fact, it flattered me to know that she would take time out of whatever she was doing just to say hi. If she was in a hurry, she would just barely acknowledge my presence with a hasty jerk of the head in my direction. She never really waited for a response - it was like she wanted to assure herself that she really knew me, but was either certain that I would reply or just plain uncaring.

Once, though, on an uncharacteristically warm afternoon for early November, I caught Annie gazing up at the clear, washed-out blue sky as she made her way across campus. Just as I opened my mouth to speak, she caught my gaze.

"Hey, Armin," she said. "Nice day out, isn't it?"

And then she smiled - she actually _smiled. _If I'd had a camera on me, I might have started snapping pictures mercilessly. Given the circumstances, though, I had to settle for memorizing everything about her face that day. The way her eyes sparkled to match the sky above her, the wind that caressed the hair hanging free from her bun, the soft pink of her cheeks - I committed it all to memory. And of course, the shape of her lips as they stretched slightly in the smallest smile.

Then the moment was over, and the her face faded back into its normal impassiveness. "See you around," she said, sounding almost embarrassed, and then she was gone into the near-winter air.

I couldn't stop grinning the whole day, and when Eren asked me what was up, I just chuckled and gestured vaguely at the sky.

"One nice day can really do something to a person, can't it?"

* * *

_But this was only the calm before the storm. For on that day, I was forced to remember…_

* * *

**lol please dont expect this to turn drama that ending is such a troll**

**Read &amp; Review! Next chapter is almost 1k words longer and stuff actually happens, yay!**


	4. Armin the Alien (and Annie Leonhart)

**Check out my 8tracks (link on profile and Chapter 2's beginning A/N) for all the music. In other news, this chapter is late because I'm sick! And winter was just getting over in my parts… anyways, enjoy the last pre-written chapter I have.**

* * *

On that day, I received a grim reminder. The fear of waiting for the audition results, and the humiliation of being subject to three merciless musicians.

Ten minutes before orchestra rehearsal, Reiner wordlessly pressed three pieces of folded paper into my hands. I could not glean a single thing from his expression. Did I get in? Did I fail miserably? With shaking hands, I unfolded the first slip.

_Bertholdt Fubar_

_I liked your tone best. The notes aren't too hard, but you made them seem intense. For this kind of song, that's good. Your shifts are clean but your vibrato needs some work. Perhaps it was nerves. _

Was that good, or bad…? Not wanting to dwell on it, I moved on.

_Reiner Braun_

_This song is easy. A lot of the other contestants played more difficult pieces, but with less musical expression than you had. Your high notes were nicely executed. However, you need to improve your articulation and emphasis at the beginning of the phrases._

My heart sank. Damn, I should have played the Caprice 24. Reiner seemed like the kind of guy to put difficulty over emotion, but I'd stupidly gone and played a piece I liked.

With a resigned sigh, I pull out the last slip - Annie's. I'd 'met her expectations', hadn't I? Or were her expectations too low in the first place?

_Annie Leonhart_

_This won't be a three-person quartet. _

And scribbled on the bottom of the sheet:

_I've talked to B and R. Come see us. Unless some Mozart auditioned, you're in._

I read the tiny paper six times over, wondering if there had been some mistake or if this was some absurd joke. After all that noise about playing an easy piece, _I was in?_

I glanced up, not sure whether this was really happening. But sure enough, the three of them were standing a little distance away, staring at me intently.

"Um," I began, hurrying over and holding up the paper. "This -?"

Annie nodded, and I finally let the excitement get to me. My heart surged upward and threatened to burst open.

"I got in?! _I got in!"_

"It's not exactly a Philharmonic orchestra," Bertholdt noted. "But we have nothing against being happy, so go ahead."

I grinned at them giddily. "But, why? You said I should have played something harder."

Reiner shrugged. "I never said that exactly. Just by being a first chair, it's obvious you have the technical requirements. We were mainly looking for expression and emotion, and you blew it out of the water."

I felt like my cheeks would explode from smiling. "Thanks, guys!"

"First rehearsal is in the same practice room as the audition at 4:00 on Tuesday, and we'll work out a schedule from then," Annie said in what I assumed was an attempt at monotone. "See you then."

"Sure!" I chirped, and practically skipped over to my chair. _I was playing in the string quartet I was playing in the string quartet I was playing with Annie Annie Annie -_

"Hi, Mr. Modest. Having fun in your new quartet?" Hitch said as she threw her music on the stand. Her tone was like lemon rinds mixed with onions and three-days-old brussels sprouts.

(That's not good.)

"I - I - oh, look at Mr. Smith's tie! Isn't it wonderful?"

"I bet they were spewing compliments about you," Hitch grumbled. "All they did was tell me to work on my articulation. Articulation! Like there's room for that in my head with all those sixteenth-notes…"

"There's always another chance," I said absently. "Life isn't over if you fail once."

I did feel kind of bad for Hitch (and the twenty-two-plus other people who didn't get in) but hopefully they'd get over it. I was too busy rejoicing to spare a thought for their misery.

"Maybe your advice would be a bit more helpful if you weren't staring at Annie and grinning idiotically," Hitch informed me. "Also, Mr. Smith's starting and I have absolutely no idea what song we're playing."

"What?!" I fumbled around with Hitch's music, but Mr. Smith had already signaled for us to begin. After about three seconds, though, he put down his baton and looked right at me.

"Mister Arlert, Miss Dreyse, would you like to tell us which song we're playing?"

"Um-" I glanced around wildly, my gaze landing on Annie. No, no, stupid, like she'd help me!

"The Symphony No. 5," Hitch spoke up unexpectedly.

I stared at her. Either Hitch was psychic, or someone had tipped her off. She jerked her head at the first violins, and I realized that Annie was discreetly holding up five fingers. She glanced backwards at us and tsk-ed at me between her teeth, as if to say, _Dumbass. Pay attention next time._

_I will, _I mouthed. _Thanks._

She simply turned around and resumed her perfect posture, and I couldn't help but break into a smile.

"Is everyone ready, finally?" Mr. Smith said deliberately, glaring at me in a not-so-intimidating way. "Okay, let's go."

* * *

I didn't see Annie at all over the next few days. Eren's band, which was pretty much my entire friend group, had a show coming up, so they were out for hours every night. I was left alone to study and practice.

Contrary to what most people thought, music wasn't my major - it was my minor. I majored in physics, and I actually enjoyed the subject. Eren never failed to call me nerdy every time I voiced my opinion, but hey, everyone already knew I was a nerd. Might as well be proud.

So I spent the majority of my time until Tuesday sitting in a practice room with sheets spilled over on a music stand, or hunched over at my desk cracking equations about velocity.

In the middle of a theory assignment I was doing Tuesday afternoon, I happened to glance up at the clock and nearly fell over. It was 4:02, and I hadn't even gathered my music.

In the movies, this is the part where the William Tell Overture starts playing while the main character runs around stuffing food in his mouth and running like hell. I basically did that, except without the Overture (which made it considerably lamer).

At 4:07 on the dot, I burst into practice room 14 with my music tucked under one arm and my violin case clutched in my other hand.

"Sorry I'm late," I wheezed. "I promise I won't - huh?"

I stopped, looking around at the empty practice room. Had I made a mistake? Was there a random daylight savings that I didn't know about? Or was it possible… Annie was _late?_

The sky should start falling on my head about now.

I began to tune and warm up, playing through some basic scales until Annie shuffled in quietly.

"Sorry I'm late," she murmured, closing the door silently. "Class extended. Also, Bertholdt and Reiner can't make it until four-thirty, so can you stay a half-hour later than planned?"

"Sure, I'm free the whole night," I said, even though I still had one-and-a-half theory assignments and a physics paper.

"Great." Without further ado, she pulled out an old music book. "This is our first rehearsal of the year, so we'll be picking pieces today. Thanks to Reiner and Bertholdt's delay, we can pick something with a nice violin melody and they can't complain."

I laughed, unsure of whether or not she was joking. "We'll just pick a violin duet and let them sit around."

Annie snorted. "Reiner would fly into a rage. That guy's addicted to performing like some kind of crazy drug."

I forced myself to chuckle again because there wasn't really much else to say. As always, I was better at speaking notes and staff lines than actual words.

"Anyways, why don't you just play for me until they show up? It's better than fighting over whatever piece we pick in the end," Annie said as she applied rosin to her bow. "You know anything apart from movie themes?"

"Of course!" I said, mildly insulted. "I have a pretty large repertoire, so go ahead and request."

"Fine. Play something lively," she said without missing a beat.

"Really?" I asked, slightly taken aback. I thought she'd be the type to request something dramatic and technically demanding, but _lively? _That fit her impassive demeanor about as much as a leather jacket and a motorcycle would fit me.

"Do you only know _sad _movie themes, then?" she snorted. "Come on, play something fun or I'll kick you out of here."

"Okay," I squeaked, probably because I somewhat believed her. "How does Vivaldi's Four Seasons - Autumn sound?"

She shrugged. "Sounds good."

This piece wasn't really fast, but it made up for it with its lively and bright tone. My bow just flew off the strings, and I could imagine music soaring from my violin, dancing around the room before floating out the door to make room for the next phrase, The cold November sunlight that dappled across the floor seemed to brighten, reminiscing the leaves that had long since scattered in hues of golden, the days when the air was crisp but not yet cold, when the world was on its last energy high before falling into hibernation.

The last few notes of the first section faded away, and I glanced at Annie. She nodded once, giving me permission to continue - although the next movement wasn't exactly lively.

This was the last few days before frost began taking over the ground, when only a few leaves clung to to the tips of tree branches and autumn reached back towards summer, desperate for just a little more gold.

Then the bright theme was back, a soaring melody that promised summer would come again, a fleeting reprise of past times before the song fell into a slow tempo once more. Back to the yearning as the autumn withered away to its final traces…

And then the third movement flew into motion, a grand finale before winter set in. The last rays of sunlight were undoubtedly the greatest, the last few leaves to hit the ground the most beautiful. And although it came to a quiet, gentle end, autumn refused to yield without leaving an everlasting impression.

I set down my violin and glanced over at Annie, whose eyes gleamed with what looked like competition.

"Not bad," she said slowly, settling her violin on her shoulder. "But how about this?"

Annie launched into the solo of Haydn's Concerto no. 4 in G Major. She played with such purpose and confidence that it was like an orchestra was playing behind her in a grand concert hall. Even in the tiny practice room with bad acoustics and a window that let in weary almost-winter light, a spotlight still found her graceful figure as her bow slid over the strings in elegant sweeps.

It could best be described as singing, the flighty melody that escaped from the depths of Annie's violin. And even as the short, light notes changed to a soothing melody that rang through the air, I could only imagine the notes pouring out of a human voice.

Her tone darkened and brightened, the notes shifted to and fro, her bow strokes shortened and lengthened, but never once did she lose the command she exerted over her fingers. It was musical and yet completely controlled, like a wild stallion and an expert rider that never had to struggle to stay on her steed.

She began the last stretch of the song, dissonant chords slowly reaching higher and higher up the strings until she finished with a gentle trill, which expanded into a grand chord that echoed off the walls a million times over.

"You're even better than they say," I said, grinning. "Let's see if you can combat this."

It was time to release my secret weapon - Paganini's Caprice 24, widely known as one of the most difficult solo violin pieces in existence. It was a risky bargain, seeing as I'd learned it as a challenge and could barely play it perfectly. To top Annie's playing, though, I'd go to any lengths.

But I had barely begun the first phrase when the door flew open with a bang.

"We're here," panted Bertholdt. "So sorry, guys."

"No problem," I said, trying to quell my disappointment. "So are we going to pick those pieces now, Annie?"

"Yeah," she said distantly, her eyes glued to my violin. "Why don't we."

And as she gave a little sigh, I knew that she'd been just as disappointed as I had to have our battle come to an end.

"So, pieces," Reiner said, plopping down and unzipping his cello case. "I was thinking some Mendelssohn, maybe no. 2 in A minor? I think it's Opus 13."

Annie shrugged. "I've never heard that piece in my life."

"It's this soulful thing Mendelssohn wrote when he was eighteen," Reiner said. "There's a lot of weeping first violin, if you're into that."

"Here's the score," Bertholdt said, handing her a fat book of Mendelssohn compositions. "Though I think we should do no. 6."

"6 is a monster for cello," Reiner complained.

"It's not bad at all," Bertholdt protested. "You've played way harder stuff."

"I feel like Haydn," Annie declared. "I was playing one of his concertos for Armin and I got in the mood."

"Ooh, Annie's in a _mood!" _Reiner said with mock enthusiasm, "Drop everything and learn all the Haydn you can get your hands on!"

Annie huffed and Bertholdt burst out laughing, while Reiner flipped open the Mendelssohn score with a sideways smirk. Watching the three of them get along so naturally, I couldn't help but feel a little out of place. Playing alone with Annie had been pure bliss, when it had been nothing but music, but I was at a complete loss when thrown into a social situation like this.

"Hello? Earth to Armin?" Bertholdt said, leaning in _way _too close to my face.

"Eek!" I spluttered.

"Reiner to Earth, we have found an unknown species. It appears to be blond and says 'eek'. It's also the only thing Annie has taken interest in since the great Haydn she so reveres."

It took a second for Reiner's words to register, but they were enough to flush my face bright pink. "GAH!"

"Annie to Earth. It also appears to say 'GAH!' and plays Vivaldi like a goddamn maestro."

Oh. My. God.

I tried to say something along the lines of 'stop, you're too kind!', but the sheer fact that Annie had directly praised me was enough to turn my words into gibberish.

"Earth to Reiner and Annie, please bring in this species for examination," Bertholdt continued. "I'd like to see this 'goddamn maestro'."

"Roger," replied Reiner. "Landing with the unknown species in five, four, three, two, one-"

He broke off and made an airplane noise, which was enough to send Bertholdt and me into fits of giggles. Here he was, this huge, serious cellist, making airplane noises and alien jokes.

"Okay, okay, joke's over," Bertholdt gasped, wiping his eyes.

"What the hell was _that, _Reiner?" Annie said, looking mildly amused. "You should imitate vehicles more often."

"Alright, how's my motorboat impression?"

"No, please don't. My ears might implode."

"You _guys_…!"

"Vi-vi-vi-valdi li-like...maestro?"

You know, if this was what being in the quartet was going to be like, my college life was about to get a hell of a lot weirder.

* * *

**Oh, Armin. 3 Next chapter introduces a new character - *advertiser voice* he's short, badass, and the ladies' favorite! (In this story he's a music geek like everyone else though haha)**


	5. The Stallion (and Annie Leonhart)

**Link to the playlist with all the music is on my profile and Chapter 2 beginning A/N. Sorry for the lack of humor, but we've got to have SOME character development.**

* * *

It was a lazy Friday afternoon, with Eren sitting on his bed and gently strumming his guitar while I organized my music. Nothing calmed me more than stacking the sheets in order of composer and style, sticking color-coded labels onto brand new binders and filing away sheet after sheet.

Yes, I have weird methods of relaxation. Deal with it.

I was searching for the second movement of a sonata that seemed to have disappeared when my phone rang. Eren jumped, an unpleasant chord twanging from his guitar.

"Jesus Christ, Armin," he breathed like the roof had just fallen on his head. But I was paying absolutely no attention because the caller ID read nothing other than 'Annie Leonhart'.

"Hello?" I said, trying my best not to stammer.

"Hey," her soft voice replied, barely audible even though both our surroundings were quiet. "You free?"

I did that whole gaping-like-a-fish thing again. Annie wanted to hang out? No way-

"Reiner and Bertholdt want to rehearse."

I had to consciously keep myself from screaming in frustration. I jumped to conclusions way too fast. Regardless, I had been planning to go shopping with Eren right about now. (yes, I'm aware of how 'girly' that sounds, but if you're creating gender roles the whole world will be on your case, and also, we weren't shopping for clothes.)

"Don't even think about canceling on me," Eren warned as if he could read my mind. "Don't you dare."

"Fine," I sighed. "Sorry, Annie, but I'm going out with Eren."

"Oh, congratulations."

"What? Oh, no, not like, we're going out!" I stammered. "I just meant, like, shopping-"

"I _know,_" she said crossly. "Can't you take a joke? Also, shopping?"

"We're buying Jean's Christmas present!" I huffed. "Which is a keyboard. So please don't say 'gayyyyyyyyy" right now."

Eren looked up. "Some conversation you're having there."

"What is up with you today?" Annie growled. "You're usually such a ray of sunlight."

"Nothing!" I exclaimed. "Seriously though, nothing."

"_I really want to rehearse with you but I don't want to let Eren down." _

Yeah, like I could say that.

There was a long pause on Annie's end. Finally, she said in an almost-but-not-quite tentative voice, "When are you leaving?"

"Oh, um, in about five minutes."

"Mm," she murmured. "Cool."

"Here's a hint," Eren whispered. "Ask her to come with us."

"How do you even know what she's saying?!" I hissed back.

"Your reactions are so easy to read," he said with a shrug. "Now say it."

Eren was usually spot-on when it came to… well, anything besides maybe academics, so it would probably just be a waste to not follow his advice. Besides, he was nodding vigorously with this insane grin on his face, and who could resist that?

I took a deep breath. "Doyouwannacomewithus?"

"...What?"

"D-do you wanna come?" I managed to choke out. "With us. Store. Keyboard. Let's go."

Eren started laughing silently, which did not help the situation at all.

"Uh, sure," Annie said. "Again, are you okay?"

"Yes, I assure you I'm positively fine," I mumbled. burying my face in my hands. "Mikasa's coming too, so she can take you to the store. See you there?"

"'Kay, bye."

A thought suddenly struck me. "Wait, how do you even know my phone number?"

"Mikasa."

And with that cryptic statement, Annie hung up.

"Alright, Mr. Ultra-Smooth," Eren said, packing up his guitar. "Let's get going."

"Why do you need your guitar?" I asked, choosing to ignore his _comment_. "You're not playing, are you?"

"You never know," he said with the faintest smile.

"Something's up, isn't it?" I pressed on, hurrying after him as we walked out of the dorm.

Eren made a soft humming noise. "Not really."

"Wait - which music store are we going to?"

"Bingo."

It actually made sense. Eren worked at an instrument store part-time, where he attracted customers just by sitting behind the counter and singing. His boss would probably have fired him already if he wasn't gifted at customer servicing (nice talent to have) and a lot of customers stuck around just to listen to him.

See, this is what I mean about my friends. If I sat around a music store playing violin, I'd probably get some weird looks and be fired within a week.

We walked in silence, Eren singing under his breath and glancing at the familiar sights like it was the first time he had seen them. He was so happily oblivious, he could have been mistaken for a kid if not for his undoubted manliness.

After about ten minutes, we reached the store sign written in quaint lettering. Eren shoved open the door, and the working employee broke into a smile as the bell rang.

"Hey, Eren. Nice timing, your friend just got here."

He immediately perked up. "Really?"

There were a few people browsing the aisles, but I could already guess which one he was so excited about.

Said person was facing away from us, hunched over at an old upright piano that badly needed tuning - the only traditional piano I could see in the store, actually. I recognized the peaceful tone of Chopin's Nocturne in E-flat Major, played with delicate mastery. Every trill was perfectly placed, all the chords falling at exactly the right time, yet there was a certain freeness to the notes as they wound their way around the instruments sitting on racks and the books sitting in neat stacks.

"Who's this?" I asked Eren in a hushed voice. Somehow, it felt wrong to disturb the steady stream of music flowing from the piano.

"Levi," he answered simply, his gaze not moving from where they were fixated on the man's back.

"Yeah, knowing his name is so helpful," I answered in an attempt at sarcasm.

Eren opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment the music stopped, and I realized all of a sudden that the song was over.

"Hey, Eren," Levi said, turning around. His face was small and defined, with angular cheekbones and a pointy chin. He had black hair that was closely cropped to a neat undercut and his steel gray eyes were small and narrow with lines etched into the skin below, making it seem like he had been frowning for his whole life.

When he stood up, it became apparent just how small he was - shorter than me, actually. Yet he walked purposefully and steadily in a way I could never manage.

"Who're you?" he asked with a sharp nod in my direction.

"I'm Eren's roommate, Armin Arlert," I said with what I hoped was a genuine smile. "Nice to meet you."

He nodded in brief acknowledgement and turned his attention back to Eren. "It's not your shift, why're you here?"

"Shopping for a keyboard, actually," he replied. "It's a while until Christmas, but we just managed to save up the money and I'll probably waste it unless we get something now."

"At your own store?" Levi said skeptically. "You're basically giving money to yourself, you know."

Eren laughed in a way that made it clear this had been his intention from the start, and I couldn't help but chuckle along. Levi somehow managed to seem amused but didn't so much as crack a smile.

The laughter died down, leaving an awkward space to fill. Eren was too busy being distracted and I figured Levi would more likely die than say something right then, so I cleared my throat and spoke up.

"So, um, that was some nice Chopin you were playing."

Levi looked up. "You play classical music?"

"Yeah, violin. Do you play anything other than piano?"

"No."

He spoke so bluntly, in as few words as possible, that it was nearly impossible to continue a conversation with him. I couldn't tell whether he absolutely despised me or not, but he seemed to be acting pretty much the same with Eren.

Luckily, the ringing of the store bell put an end to our awkward not-conversation. And even luckier, the people walking inside were Annie and Mikasa.

"Hello, Armin," Annie said softly as she closed the door behind her. "What are we shopping for again?"

"Hello?" Eren cut in. "I exist too, you know!"

Annie stared at him blankly. "Sorry, what's your name?"

Eren sighed resignedly and dragged Mikasa and Levi off. "You guys can help me look for a keyboard while they're, ah, _busy."_

Annie tossed her head indifferently, and once more I couldn't help but be reminded of a proud stallion - powerful beyond words, wild with the icy fire behind her eyes, and unquestionably the leader of the herd.

"Levi's playing kind of reminds me of you," I said, flipping through a book of famous Beethoven pieces. "It's so emotional, but still in control."

"I suppose I should be flattered, then," she replied slowly, picking up the next book in the set, Haydn. "He's much more skilled than I am."

"He's older, and might be majoring in music," I reminded her.

She nodded slightly, and put back the book with slightly trembling hands. I stared after her helplessly as she walked over to the piano and sat down at the bench, staring contemplatively at the rows of black and white. Her fingers, so gentle, so pale, pressed down on one key after another like each one was made of glass. They meandered, playing nothing in particular, wandering over ivory and ebony in a colorful array of notes. It was more than a random tune should have been. It was almost like _music. _

I approached her from behind, watching as her fingers traveled up the keys like they were born to do this. It was like she'd been a pianist in another life and had only brought the last remnants of her knowledge into this one. She was a child on the piano for the first time, and yet she was the experienced musician who drew crowds of thousands to her.

I didn't notice Levi had joined me until he spoke in just above a whisper, gazing down critically over the back of her head at her fingers, entranced in a puppeteer's dance.

"She doesn't play piano." It was a statement.

I nodded in agreement. "And yet…"

"Musical ability transcends all instruments," he said. "But this is different. It's like-"

"I was born to play the piano."

Annie spoke without looking up, but even the words escaped her lips her fingers stumbled and sprawled on the keyboard. She stood up slowly, looking at the piano like it was made of thorns, and turned around to face Levi.

"If I had chosen _that, _would I have been better? Would I have been like you?" She stared right at him, lips pursed, eyes cold and still somehow pleading, _tell me. _

"Is it not enough to play what I love? Are my wings clipped as long as I play violin? I wouldn't know, because apparently I made the wrong choice."

Neither of us said a word as Annie stalked away, her footsteps never faltering as she went over to look at the violins.

"She's being overdramatic," Levi concluded. "The only thing she was born to do was play music. Piano, violin, doesn't matter."

"Not necessarily," I said slowly. "For example, if you have good pitch, string instruments and such work. If you have good coordination, piano and other two-handed instruments would be best."

Levi sniffed and sat down on the bench. "It doesn't matter. Tell her not to regret her choice. She can't undo years of practice."

"That's the thing!" I complained. "She's so good at violin - most musicians would give anything to have her talent. She couldn't be much better at piano than she is at violin!"

"You're so angry about this," Levi observed. "On her behalf?"

"I-"

"Hey, guys, stop having deep conversations without me!" Eren interrupted, appearing out of nowhere. His smile was benign at first glance, but living with him for so long had taught me to recognize his emotions at once. So I could say for certain that right now, Eren was jealous. Green as a leaf with envy. I frowned at him, trying to catch his attention, but he was either ignoring me or focusing on Levi.

Said man shrugged. "Can't imagine even having a normal conversation with the likes of you. Also, that girl with the scarf is staring at me like she wants to murder me."

"Her? That's Mikasa," Eren said offhandedly. "If she glares at you like that, she's either really interested in you or hates your guts."

"Good to know."

I left the two of them alone to chat (I'd rather not get murdered by Eren and his green-with-envy face), making my way over to where Annie was talking with one of the employees.

"Yes, this violin is one of our best, very finely crafted…"

"Can I play it, or not?" Annie said impatiently.

"What? Oh, yeah, sure." She handed the violin and the bow to Annie, who raised them into position and prepared to play. As if on cue, a collective hush fell over the store.

I didn't recognize the song at once, but the employee apparently did.

"Sonata for Violin solo no. 2 in A minor, Grave," she whispered with a delighted smile on her face. "I've never heard anyone play it like this before."

It was different than how she'd played Haydn for me in the practice room. Here, there was no spotlight. She wasn't playing it for me, for anybody. If I could see through her eyes, I would see nothing - she was totally immersed.

The melody was soulful, haunting, with dark contrasts between low and high notes. I could imagine her in all her stallion-like glory, the great Annie Leonhart, playing on the violin like she was singing. But I was only imagining; the Annie here was desperate to reassure herself, desperate to promise herself that this was it. This was how good she could be, no matter what instrument she played.

When the song ended, she seemed almost surprised to see both me and the employee staring at her. "Well, thanks," she mumbled, and handed back the violin and bow to the employee before yanking up her hood and shuffling towards the door.

"Annie, wait!" I called, catching up to her. "You didn't even help to look for a keyboard."

She gave me a poisonous look. "I came here to kill time, and I think I've killed all my time and maybe more than that."

"Like what, your self-esteem?" I snapped, then immediately clapped my hand over my mouth. But that couldn't take back the words I just said.

Annie, though didn't seem bothered at all. "Who knew? Even you can throw an insult once in a while."

I exhaled in relief. "Well, will you stay?"

She looked back at the aisles filled with people - Eren standing awkwardly to the side as Mikasa and Levi glared each other to pieces, the guitar lying forgotten on the top of the piano, the employee who'd been helping them find a keyboard looking rather confused.

"I suppose," she breathed. "Just...introduce me to all your friends. It's hella awkward only knowing you and Mikasa."

"Please, I don't even know Levi!" I laughed, beyond relieved. "Come on, let's go."

Although she didn't once crack a smile or say more than four words in a row, Annie seemed more cheerful after that. Maybe it was just way the sunlight hit her, but she somehow seemed brighter, more confident. Even if just a little, the stallion had returned.

"Thanks for today," she said to me at the checkout as Eren did his little thing of being both the customer and the cashier. "I… well, it didn't suck."

I chuckled. "Good to know."

And it really was. Being the reason Annie's day didn't suck felt nicer than it should have, just like how her piano playing was more beautiful than it should have been, even though her heart was still a tad colder than it should be for someone so kind.

(I'll warm it up for you, Annie.)

* * *

**There's actually a whole side story about Eren and Levi swimming around in my brain. I'll write it up after I finish this. Anyway, the two stories directly affect each other, so you will be seeing some of what Eren's going through even in this story.**

**Favorite, follow, and review, please! I will give you a lock of Annie's hair (no, jk, you get cookies like a normal person.) Also, next chpater is hopefully going to be fluffier. :)**


	6. Finals (and Annie Leonhart)

**Sorry for the late chapter, I was really busy over break! I promise, last slow-moving chapter. Because of the whole 'finals' vibe, I couldn't get a light tone. But next week they're all done, so more music stuffs and fluffs.**

**On that note, good luck to all those college students with finals coming up!**

* * *

"Armin."

That tone expressed Annie's unadulterated rage more clearly than anything she could have said. Cold and deadly, an icicle impaling me straight through the heart.

"I lost count and came in late! I'm so, so, sorry," I squeaked. In this situation, it was best to beg and grovel at her feet. That way, I might not die today.

"Why haven't you marked in your beats yet?" she demanded. "Do you have a pencil?"

"Yes..."

"Then mark in your goddamn beats before I count to twenty!" she roared (or as close to roaring as someone as soft-spoken as Annie could get, anyway.)

I scribbled away as fast as I could, but I got stuck somewhere in the fifth measure and tuned out until Annie's threatening "twenty" invaded my hearing.

No, no, no. Twenty seconds already? This was a trick. She had jumped from one to twenty, hadn't she? But she was glaring at me with a look that was far from joking.

"I-I'm not done," I whispered, shielding my face in case she threw a stand at me like she had two weeks ago.

"Ten more," she said, narrowing her eyes. "One, two, three…"

I was done before she got to four.

"Alright, shall we pick it up from there?" Annie said to Bertholdt and Reiner. Her voice had changed completely, with all the menace replaced by her normal low, lilting tone.

We started again and I thankfully made my entrance. I began to relax, going so far as to lose myself in the music for a few moments before I almost messed up and snapped back to reality. It was the fifth day we'd playing the piece, and I really should have sat down and learned my part, but I'd been swamped with homework. Of course, Annie and the rest wouldn't take that for an answer, so I just had to grin and bear their disapproval until I got a few hours.

Bertholdt stumbled on a note and the music halted abruptly. This time it was Reiner who took on the scolding, and I got to sit and watch like the two guys must have when Annie had been grilling me. Although their method was certainly brutal, it worked well. When one messed up, one or more members would give them a micro-lesson with all the brutality of a masters-level class until they learned the section. At least we knew each other well even now. Yelling does a lot to improve friendship bonds.

"We've been here for two hours, and I have class," Annie said suddenly, standing up. "We'll meet on Thursday, have your parts for Haydn learned and at least familiarize yourself with Dvorak. Armin, we need to chat, so hurry up."

"Right," I said, my heart sinking. I was in for a lecture about my supposedly lacking practice habits.

"Annie, I promise I'll practice tomorrow," I said in a desperate attempt to appease her as I zipped up my violin case and followed her outside. "So please-"

"It's not that," she interrupted. "It's about management."

"What?"

"It's mid-December," she said with a frown. "We have finals coming up, but afterwards there's going to be a lot of music festivals and such for Christmas. None of us are well connected, so I'm going to entrust you with getting us at least three performances by the end of January."

"Right, I think you have something wrong. I'm not popular by any means," I said. "I could ask Eren, but…"

"That's what I mean," she said. "Your friends are really well-connected. Especially the managers of Eren's band - what were their names?"

"Ymir and Krista," I supplied. "And gee, thanks for that boost to my self-esteem."

She gave me a blank look, void of its usual subtle glimmer. "Let it go for once, Armin. Just because you're some kind of genius doesn't mean the rest of us don't have to study for."

And with that, she marched off in true Annie fashion, except for the fact that she whipped out a fat textbook as she stepped out into the cold winter air.

I frowned after her, feeling an odd kind of knot tightening in my chest. Not the fluttery feeling I felt when she called my name, nor the gradual pressure of finals bearing down on me slowly but surely. No, it was something much closer to anger.

"The only reason you call me a genius is because I don't have a life outside of studying," I whispered at Annie's fading silhouette as I stepped onto the hard, cold ground. "So don't you act like this is a gift."

* * *

I was ready to scream when I walked in to find all of Eren's band sitting in our dorm room.

"What the hell, Eren?" I cried, gesturing frantically at the mass of people gathered on the floor.

"It's a study session," he said casually. "Sit down, and we'll get started."

"None of you are in the same classes! How is this helping?"

"We're all studying our subjects individually," said Connie like it was the brightest idea in the world.

I gaped at them for a few seconds, trying to process the fact that _four uninvited people _were sitting in my extremely tiny room for apparently no reason.

"I'm going to the library," I said finally, picking up my laptop and notebooks. "Have fun 'studying'."

"Armin, wait." Jean spoke up, and I turned around resignedly.

"What?"

He tossed a folder at me. "Give this to Annie, will you? I'm in her Business Statistics class and I heard she was having some trouble. These are extra notes."

"Having some trouble?" I echoed.

"Yeah, it's pretty common knowledge she hates business. She should've stuck to music, but I guess stubborn fathers are stubborn."

It all made sense - Annie's worse-than-usual moods, her uncharacteristic studying and badly placed insults. I'd known she hated her major, but in the face of my own finals, I'd completely forgotten. Suddenly I felt more than a prick of guilt for my frustration towards her.

I shut the door without saying anything and took off.

I hurried more than I should have to Annie's dorm (I only knew its location because of Mikasa, I swear!), clutching the folder tightly to my chest with my head bowed to the icy wind.

I knocked kind of nervously on her door, and almost screamed when Annie flung the door open holding a textbook like it was a club.

"I was studying," she snarled. "Get. Out."

"Um, J-J-Jean wanted t-to give these to y-you," I stammered, shoving the folder in her arms.

Her face softened slightly. "Oh. Okay."

I hadn't died yet, thank God. "I-I'll leave, if you want to get back to studies…"

She inhaled sharply, as if she needed to say something, but shook her head slightly. "Good luck, then."

I stared at her, trying to comprehend what her problem was. "Do you need anything…?"

"Not at all," she said without a moment's hesitation. "I'm perfectly fine."

Well, there was no point pressing her for something she wouldn't reveal - it was a waste of study time. "Bye, then."

I turned to leave, but before I knew it my feet had come out from under me and I was suspended in midair. The world spun upside down and - big surprise - my head collided with the ground.

There I go again. Mr. Clumsy Extraordinaire. I vaguely registered Annie's slightly panicked voice hovering above me, and I wanted to tell her that I was fine, but my head was still throbbing and I was feeling kind of numb.

"Ughhh… gwuhhh…" I mumbled, which was basically my failed attempt to speak.

Suddenly the floor was scraping against my face and my limp corpse (sorry, am I being too dramatic?) was being dragged through a doorway. It was, as you can imagine, not the most pleasant feeling in the world.

"Annie!" I whimpered, trying to struggle to my feet. If she hadn't been hauling me inside like a hostage, I'd probably be perfectly fine by now.

"It's okay, you're going to live," was her totally uncalled for response.

"I know that!" I shrieked.

"You sound like a little girl."

"Then stop dragging me across your dorm floor!"

She abruptly let go of me and I crashed to the floor. Restraining the urge to whine in pain, I staggered to a standing position and promptly fell as my knees buckled.

Annie frowned at me. "Are you sure you don't have motor control issues?"

"Yeah," I gasped as I tried to regain my balance. "I just… fall down a lot, and it's usually not pretty."

"So the mud incident happens a lot?"

"What?"

"You know, when I first met you. The day you fell in the mud."

"_Oh," _I said, remembering all of a sudden and flushing bright red at the mere thought. "Yeah. That's pretty much a description of my life."

"Hm," she responded distantly, now flipping through Jean's notes. "Damn it, I'm going to fail. Stupid statistics."

"Is it just stats that's bothering you?" I asked.

"It's basically math, and I'm no good at that stuff," she sighed. "I mean, I'll survive, but…"

"But business is a lot of statistics," I said, growing increasingly worried. "If you're not good at math, then are you sure you'll be okay?"

"There's just as much management and economics, which I'm okay at," she said defensively. "I tell you, I'll be fine."

"You'd be so much happier in a music major," I mumbled.

It was like a siren had gone off in her head. "What was that?!"

"Never mind," I said hurriedly and tried to change the subject before the volatile blonde blew a fuse. "Hey, you know, I'll help you with your stats, if you'd like."

She stopped short. "Really?"

"Sure."

"Uh, okay," she said, gathering her books off her desk and suddenly seeming a lot friendlier. "There's no room here, so why don't we go to the library?"

We set off across the campus together, both of us almost swaying under the weight of our textbooks. The cold air was refreshing, bringing clarity to my brain that was stuffed with definitions and piles of notes. If only it could blow away my finals, too.

"How's your studying going?" Annie asked quietly as the library came into sight. "I don't know how you handle physics."

"I like math, so I suppose it's okay," I said. "But I'm still stressed. Today, I walked in, and Eren's whole band was sitting there…"

Before I knew it, everything was spilling out - my problems with Eren and his inconsideration, my juggling act of violin and grades, why I hadn't been able to practice - everything.

"I'm here on scholarship," I nearly sobbed. "If I fail, I'm outta here."

Annie's face, pale at best, was practically sheet-white and seemed to glow against the night sky. "Holy shit," she breathed. "I wonder how you haven't snapped yet."

"It's hard," I said with a weak attempt at at a laugh. "Sometimes, I want to just shout at people - who piss me off, I mean."

"That's the thing about you," Annie pointed out as we entered the library. "You don't _get _pissed. Today, I was yelling at you for not practicing with absolutely no thought to the fact that you were studying desperately to keep a scholarship. And you just sat there and took it."

"I just don't like saying to the whole world, 'I hate this, stop.' What good would that do?"

She glanced over at me, like this was surprising to her (though it's really just common sense). "That's surprisingly true. If only all the whiners in the world thought like you."

I sat down at an empty table. "Never mind that. How about those statistics?"

We spent the next hour-and-a-half working through pages of business stats, but this girl was hardly the strong woman I knew. She was fragile, laid bare, with all her weaknesses exposed as she asked me over and over again to explain. The desperation in her eyes, the humiliation that seemed to permanently carve itself into her face - it made teaching her utter torture.

"Annie," I said finally, putting down my pencil. "You're not dumb, so stop acting like you are."

"I'll get it somehow," she muttered furiously. "If I practice enough, I've gotta…"

"Annie," I repeated, gentler this time. "Annie."

She looked up at me, eyes cold and dead like a winter sky.

"You need to relax. The more you work yourself up, the less you're going to learn." I spoke slowly, softly, never breaking eye contact. "You are most certainly going to learn these statistics concepts. If I have to sit here all night and teach you, I will. And don't get embarrassed over it - I know it's hard. It took a lot for me to play in front of you without feeling humiliated."

"But you're decent at violin."

"I'm nothing compared to you! Nobody is anything compared to you. Nobody is as kind, as strong, as determined, as _breathtaking _as you. So I'll be damned if some stats course is what brings you down."

"You don't have to spout bullshit just to make me feel better," she said stiffly, although her face was already brightening. "Let's just keep going."

I must be an okay talker, because Annie was considerably more relaxed after that. She worked with renewed force, and when she cracked one of the most difficult problems on the page, I saw the briefest of smile flit across her face before she moved on.

Later that night, we were studying our respective subjects silently when a completely unprecedented wave of warmth washed over me. Classical music playing through shared earbuds, a silent bond of friendship, a stats problem worked methodically until the last step - it was moments like these that I lived for.

"Annie," I said without really thinking, pulling out the earbuds. "Annie, I-"

She looked at me, and I looked at her, and I realized that anything I said now wouldn't be worth it. Even if she was my everything, I was still a nothing. And I'd rather keep my everything than lose it over some hurried words.

"Nothing. Good luck on your finals."

She nodded absently. "You too."

* * *

I aced, and I hope she did too.

* * *

**WOAH LOOK AT ALL THE CHEESE WANNA HAVE SOME MACARONI WITH THAT**

**In other news, I was at Boston University on a college tour for my older sister and I memorized every bit of it. Like this one guy nervously approaching a girl (I seriously expected somebody to be filming, it was so much like a TV show) and a couple sharing earbuds while studying in silence at the library.**


	7. Shakespeare (and Annie Leonhart)

**Just realized this but this story is REALLY SLOW. Like how did I not see this? Anyways, this has been a lot of "setting the stage" in terms of the various relationships in this story, but from here until the end (about 20 chapters) it's going to pick up. **

* * *

Eren did two things after finals, and I was there for both of them.

The morning after our exams, he ran outside the dorm and stood in the middle of street full of people, who watched him with quiet interest. That quiet interest turned into full-out laughter and cheers when he screamed at the top of lungs,

"I'M FREE!"

That was fun, I had to admit. His second thing wasn't.

We were at a random cafe on the very edge of campus (Eren liked these out-of-the-way places, probably because they were cheap) and working on homework when he suddenly dropped a bomb on me to break the silence.

"Armin, Armin, I'm hosting a party tonight at my house. It's only, like, thirty minutes from here, so will you bring all your music geeks along?"

I choked on my coffee. "_What?_"

He shrugged. "Sorry, I guess I'm a music geek too."

"That's not it!" I wailed (this slightly alarmed Eren and seriously alarmed everybody else within ten feet of us). "I've literally never been to a party!"

Apart from ten-year-old birthday parties, of course, but I doubted that counted for someone so _socially advanced_ as Eren. Sweet sixteens, celebrations, even random parties were all missing from my highschool experience. I'd never really wanted that kind of a life, but suddenly the opportunity seemed a lot more real now Eren and his undeniably cool presence had forced itself into my life.

"Oh, come on," Eren laughed. "I must have dragged you along last year for something-or-other."

"I faked sick every time," I groaned. "And you believed me."

"Right, you _were_ sickly that year," he said with the confused air of somebody who hasn't put two and two together. "Wait - that was all fake?!"

"Sometimes I wonder how you're not flunking college," I deadpanned - or at least I tried, I may or may not have been grinning - and sipped my coffee.

"In any case, this year you actually have friends to bring along, so-"

"That's not true!" I protested, even though it probably was. All my friends were Eren's friends, who I'd met through Eren. Until, of course, the string quartet. We'd been playing together for almost two months now, and I supposed they were my friends...

With a start, I remembered what Annie had asked me to do before finals. "I've got to get three concerts by January!"

Eren gave me a strange look. "Well, that's on topic."

Like usual, the sarcasm took a few seconds to register. "I'm sorry, but she asked me to do this before finals and the term ends today!"

He shrugged. "Talk to Krista and Ymir tonight, they'll book you something. It'd give you a reason to go, anyway."

The thought of a party scared me more than it probably should have, but I was also strangely excited. Of course, there was no guarantee that Annie and company would be coming, but spending time with my "friends" outside of music was too great of a chance to resist. If anybody asked, I was going for the sole purpose of talking to Krista and Ymir.

"Sounds great," I said, trying to keep the nervousness from my voice.

Eren broke into a smile. "Look who's finally getting normal."

I was about to protest that I wasn't "normal" yet and had no intention of ever straying from my nerdiness when the door flew open with a bang to reveal Mikasa, flushed with anger and holding her phone like she wanted to murder it.

"Good morning," she spat as she seated herself stiffly into her chair. "How do you do."

"Excellent, thank you," Eren squeaked. "M-may I inquire as to what upsets you?"

Mikasa's face darkened until it resembled a thundercloud.

"Please, uh, My Lady?"

This certainly wasn't England in the 1800s, but I figured that this was just Eren's way of dealing with stress. Or Mikasa's way of dealing with anger. Either way, I wanted to extract myself from their awkward conversation before they fell into Shakespearean language, so I stayed out of it.

"Levi," she hissed out of the blue.

Eren went bright red. "Wh-what? Levi?"

"Yes, Levi." She shoved her phone in Eren's face and I tried my level best to keep my gaze away from it (don't get caught up, don't get caught up.) "Levi _Ackerman_."

I choked on my coffee again, but Eren didn't seem fazed either by my impending suffocation or the shocking news.

"Yeah, I always thought the last names were a coincidence, but you guys do look similar. Do you know him?"

"I'm an orphan," she growled ferociously, and Eren made an odd squawking noise. "Do you _think _I would know my family?"

"Yes, ma'am. I mean, no, ma'am."

"That scum is my" -she cleared her throat, as if spitting out the next words might kill her - "father's brother's son's cousin's father's sister's son."

"Your - your what?"

"Father's brother's son's cousin's father's sister's son," she repeated, not any slower.

"C-can we just call him your cousin?"

"Absolutely not," she declared standing up. "I want to be as far separated from him as possible. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get something to eat."

"Okay," Eren managed, adding a "Ma'am" for good measure.

As soon as she was out of sight, he slumped over on the table, exhaling loudly.

"She is something when she's upset," I observed quietly, sipping my now-cold coffee. "So what's the deal?"

Eren raised his head to the ceiling, as if some invisible cafe god would save him from his sister's wrath. "I don't even know. She doesn't like Levi for some reason, and finding out she's related to him - I think she doesn't like being reminded of the fact that I'm not her real family. And she hates the fact that he is."

"It's not really about herself as much as it is about you," I said slowly. "Mikasa's worried about you. She doesn't like him just because, well, you-"

"He's my friend," he interrupted, as if he knew what I was going to say. "Just a friend."

I set down my cup. "Look, Eren, you're about as straight as I am a graceful masterpiece of a human being. You know that."

"Of course I do!" Eren said exasperatedly. "That doesn't mean that I fall in love with every guy I see!"

"I never said anything like that!" I cried. "But it's so painfully obvious, and I only saw you two together for that one hour at the music store."

"Not as obvious as you and Annie, for sure!" he shot back. "Look at yourself, staring at her with your big lovey-dovey eyes, following her around, spending every free second with her."

It was just a tactic to distract me, but it sure worked. "No! It's not - I mean - it's just that she plays violin well, that's all."

Eren looked at me, and I looked at him, and I think we realized just how badly we were lying to ourselves at the exact same second. Neither of us had to say anything; we just accepted it, together.

"The course of true love never did run smooth," I sighed.

Eren gave me a strange look. "What?"

"It's Shakespeare," I said. "Thought you should know, with the way you were talking to Mikasa."

"That was just me trying not not get skewered by her! Do you really think I'd know shit about Shakespeare? I'm a music major!"

"I'm a physics major, and I've read lots of his plays!" I retorted, and we continued arguing about the merits of reading Shakespeare until Mikasa came back with a pile of food.

"I didn't even think this tiny hole-in-the-wall had that much to eat," Eren chortled, although it quickly turned to eagerness. "Wait, they have cinnamon buns? And coffee cakes?"

"Yup," Mikasa said, smiling faintly. "You'd never know, but it's there." Her anger from before was replaced with a kind of softness that was a rare miracle from her - the last time I'd seen it was after the bagel excursion before I got into the string quartet, a couple of months ago. Watching her around Eren in her usual mother-hen fashion, I couldn't help but sympathize with her. Eren was easy to take advantage of, and her grumpy little father's brother's son's cousin's father's sister's son seemed like the obvious guy to do it. But what Eren needed right now was a sister, not a mother.

Well, it's not like I could change the fact that Mikasa hated Levi's guts. Unless I wanted to get killed, that is. So for now, I'd let Eren chase after Levi starry-eyed, and I would keep chasing after Annie.

My Shakespeare quote had been badly placed - first of all, this probably wasn't even true love, and it was running far too smooth than any romance author would have thought possible. Life would go on, we'd hang out and play violin. It would be normal.

Maybe.

Well, I'd find out in due time - that is, if I survived the party tonight.

* * *

"Armin, you look _fine."_

"Are you sure? Aren't you supposed to wear a suit to a party?"

"No, you idiot! This is a casual party!"

"Are you _sure?"_

"Yes, I'm one thousand percent sure! I'm the host and you're wearing my clothes, what could go wrong?"

"Everything!"

The truth was, Eren looked a whole lot better than I did (well, they were his own clothes). It didn't matter that Eren had picked out a wardrobe for me like we were highschool girls, and just thrown on some random stuff himself. Some guys just had it lucky, I supposed.

"Well, let's go," Eren said, slipping on a sleek gray jacket and his guitar (what.) "I'm bringing the guitar home ahead of time, so it goes through safely," he added in response to my silent question.

"Show-off," I grumbled.

"What was that? I didn't quite catch it," he replied with fake confusion, cupping a hand over his ear. "Are you calling me a show-off, mister has-his-violin-awards-in-a-freaking -glass-case?"

I rolled my eyes. "Have you been looking through my phone again?"

"Again?" he protested (liar.) "_No. _It was only the photos."

"What did you need my photos for…?"

"Oh, look, the bus stop!" Eren exclaimed - with a little too much cheerfulness - and quickened his pace. Whatever. He probably hadn't been selfie-bombing my phone or anything.

Actually, knowing Eren, he probably was.

I spent most of the bus ride searching my phone for any trace of Eren, but either he'd been pretty stealthy or he actually hadn't been in it. Before I knew it, we were stepping off the bus into a light drizzle - we had to walk from here.

According to Eren, who talked nonstop as he walked along, most of the people attending the party were college people not lazy enough to make the half hour trip and his high school friends, who he miraculously still kept in touch with. I was just crossing my fingers in the hope that Annie would be there.

I'd talked to her about it after our last rehearsal for the term, and she'd seemed mildly interested. But you never knew with people like Annie - I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if she didn't show up.

"Okay, we're here," Eren announced as we approached a large, spacious cream-colored house. "I know it's not much, but…"

I laughed nervously; my house was about one-third the size.

"Home sweet home," Eren breathed, turning the key and leading us inside. The house looked immaculate, but somehow lived-in. The stacks of recipes, reminders on the fridge, photos lining the mantelpiece - I could imagine the Jaeger family going about their business here, happily. Just like Eren always seemed to be.

"Hurry up and help me," Eren grunted as he hauled a giant box filled with assorted bags of junk food. "Everyone will be here soon."

We spent the next three hours dragging stuff around and arguing over music (try classical music, I said - bad idea) until the very first guests began to arrive. Unsurprisingly, Mikasa arrived promptly, but quite surprisingly, Annie was in tow. The former was dressed in a simple yet bold wine red dress and had straightened her hair so that it hung in a glossy black sheet around her shoulders. She looked like she was going to a club, not a house party, but then again Mikasa could pull off anything. She looked totally bored, like she was only here to keep an eye on Eren.

Annie, on the hand, looked, decidedly self-conscious in her baby blue tank top and skinny jeans - she kept wrapping her cardigan around herself as if the heater wasn't even on. I wanted to tell her she looked nice, but she just looked uncomfortable.

"I see I wasn't invited to your little set-up," Mikasa said, eyeing the room suspiciously. "You two been up to anything weird?"

Eren began to splutter (it was worst for him; he could probably imagine 'weird stuff' applying to guys) and I chipped in, "Who knows?"

Mikasa looked positively murderous at this, so I quickly assured her that it was a joke, but not before noticing that Annie's passive expression had changed slightly into the tiniest of frowns. She glanced back and forth between us, as if she was trying to deduce just what had been going on. Surely her sense of humor couldn't be so nonexistent that she didn't get that I was joking? (Then again, I'm not one to talk.)

"Er, Annie-"

"What?" she snapped, her face like stone. When she turned to meet my gaze, though, her glare melted slightly. "...Ah, I - sorry."

"What for?" Eren asked, forever oblivious to the situation.

"Eren, why don't you go with me to check if the rooms are set up properly," Mikasa said deliberately, dragging him out of the room. I snuck her a grateful glance, and she nodded stiffly before disappearing into the kitchen.

Annie stared after them, her eyebrows creased in perplexity.

"Are you two an item?"

I gaped at her.

"As in, together?"

"What?! NO!" I burst out, waving my hands wildly. "I was just joking - you know - you _do _know that I'm straight, right?"

"Right," she said vaguely.

"Do I look gay to you?" I said, preparing to give my usual speech about how looks don't determine the person, especially not the sexuality, et cetera - my usual spiel when people commented that Eren didn't 'look' gay.

"Uh-"

I launched into The Speech, ignoring the look of surprise on her face. No matter if it was Annie or whoever, but there were some things that I was very passionate about, and those were things I was going to defend.

"Armin," Annie said forcefully, just as I got to the point where I outlined the main forms of appearance-based prejudice relating to sexuality. "Armin."

"What?" I snarled, and I could almost see her pupils dilate in fear,

"I-I was joking, Armin," she said weakly. "I didn't think it was a touchy subject."

_Oh._

"I see," I said faintly, the anger hissing out of me like steam. "Well, don't joke about those things, because, well, Eren's-"

"I know he's gay," she interrupted. "I see that now, but I didn't realize until recently. Remember, I made a joke like this before?"

I could kind of recall it - I had been going shopping for Jean's Christmas present, and she had asked us if we were going out.

She cleared her throat. "Well, anyway, I'll stay away from that subject from now on."

"Yeah, you don't want another Speech from me, do you?"

She half-chuckled, but turned to me with a dead serious look on her face (fake or not, I couldn't tell). "Armin… you _are _straight, right?"

"ANNIE!"

* * *

After about an hour of fooling around and general chaos, Eren and Levi disappeared to go provide some "live music" and Mikasa slunk after them to make sure Levi stayed a good three feet away from her brother, leaving Annie and me alone together.

"So, Reiner and Bertholdt aren't here, but we're supposed to get some concerts for this winter." As always, Annie was on top of things, all business.

"Yeah, Eren told me to talk to Krista and Ymir, because they arrange everything for Eren's band-"

"Is that them?" Annie cut me off, pointing at a tall, dark-haired woman and the petite blonde her arm was slung around.

"How did you know?"

She shrugged. "I've seen them around. They're in charge of practically everything at school."

"Yeah, they're insanely efficient," I chuckled. "Come on, let's go."

We wound our way through the sizable crowd (amazing how Eren had managed to scrounge up so many friends) and waited until they turned away from their current conversation. Ymir spotted me at once and her face lit up with the sort of evil happiness she got from her so-called 'friendly teasing'.

"Hey, if it isn't our little music nerd!" Ymir exclaimed, clapping me on the shoulder. "How's it going, Armin?"

"It's going great, actually. And you?"

"Ah, you know, Krista has been spending an awful lot of time talking to Reiner, and I'm starting to worry if she's secretly straight."

Annie was staring at Ymir like she'd found an alien, and I couldn't blame her. See, it was an art learning how to talk to Ymir. Half of what she said was bull, and the other half was sarcasm.

"I'm not serious, blondie," she said to Annie (hard to tell, seeing as she was surrounded by three blondes). "Can't you take a joke?"

"Apparently not," she said, frowning.

Ymir had this way of making people feel so uncomfortable that they somehow found themselves at ease, but it wasn't working on Annie. She looked at the tall brunette like she was a stain on her sheet music and crossed her arms in a subtle gesture that meant _bring it on, because I've already waged war._

Krista, who'd picked up on this immediately, made an attempt to mollify her with her angelic smile. "I don't think we've met. I'm Krista."

"Annie," she grunted, and uncrossed her arms to shake Krista's outstretched hand.

"I've heard you're quite the violinist," she continued - she really knew how to flatter a person. "You've been a first chair for how long now?"

"You play piccolo," Annie said abruptly, still frowning at her. "In Symphony Orchestra."

"I do," she said shyly. "Flute, piccolo, and a little guitar, piano, violin, clarinet, and ukulele."

"... Oh."

"And I sing," she added brightly, which was the final straw for poor Annie's self-esteem. See, it was an art to talk to Krista, too. She was so nice, but her ability to do practically everything, and do it better than you, is something that frequently popped up in her conversations.

Before this turned into a total train wreck and Annie punched something, I spoke up. "So, guys, we're in a string quartet and we're looking for casual performance opportunities."

I hadn't even finished my sentence by the time Krista whipped out her event planner, the polite smile replaced by knitted eyebrows and lips downturned in concentration. "There's not many classical opportunities for groups left… a lot of solo concerts and stuff. Oh, there's a solo-and-small-group event for classical musicians, but the only people I've heard are coming are some eighth-grade trombone players. Hm, do you play light music?"

"Like, not classical?" Annie spoke the words like they would poison her.

"No, not classical. You could always do Amazing Grace or something, but it's almost all bands and people like Eren, singing with a guitar. In fact" -she whipped through another booklet "-Eren and the band should be there."

I perked up; I rarely got to see the band anywhere but rehearsal. "That actually sounds cool, Krista."

"Really?" Annie half-growled. "I was thinking of some more classical music performances."

Krista turned her smile back on and tapped her planner. "There's also a string-quartet only event on January 28th, a supposed-to-be-solo concert that started allowing groups of up to four a few days after the new semester starts, and several other events."

"Those sound great," Annie said in the same half-growl. "Thank you."

"Oh, I think we'll come to the light music night, too," I said, nervousness raising my voice an octave. _Alright, Annie, you can shoot me now._

But instead of shooting me or murdering me in some other violent way, she simply said, "Hm." and crossed her arms again.

"Cool," Krista said, snapping her various books shut and stuffing them all in her miniature purse. "I'll be at most of these events, so I'll see you there!"

"Bye, guys. Try not to miss us too much." And with that, Ymir draped her arm around Krista again and they disappeared into the crowd.

"It's a bit of an art talking to them," I told Annie apologetically as soon as they were out of earshot.

"I can see that," she mumbled. "Suddenly, I appreciate normal people like you a lot more."

"They're the ones considered normal, not me!" I protested, forgetting to stutter and splutter for once. "Whatever. We got our concerts- although I'm sorry about forcing the light music night on you."

She shrugged. "It won't kill me to play some non-classical."

We talked for hours after that, milling around, sitting in the living room while Eren sang to Levi's piano - pop songs that somehow seemed like an energetic band even though it was just some keys and a voice - watching the silly grin on his face, betting for how long it would take him to confess - these supposedly normal things that supposedly normal friends talked about. It was more than nice, it was _awesome. _Awesome like when a kid finds a cool new toy at the store, like when there's no other word but something so generic, so childishly fun.

But all of a sudden she glanced at her watch and almost jumped out of her seat, her face wrinkled into the telltale frustration of _I stayed too long._

"I have to go and grab my stuff, my dad expects me home tonight."

"Oh," I said, the _awesome _evaporating from the air as quickly as it had settled in. "See you around."

"Uh-" she stopped and tucked her bangs behind her ear, gaze finding the floor. "You know- thanks, Armin. It was a good semester. I'll see you after break."

And my mouth was moving but I wasn't saying anything, because what can you say to someone who has turned your life inside out and slowly, slowly, like a worm in an apple but somehow in a good way, made themselves a special niche inside you?

So I told her to have a good break, all that good stuff, and somehow among these courteous words something completely unprecedented slipped out:

"Can I have your number?"

She looked at me and I looked at her, and before she could so much as open her mouth in response I blurted, "You know, so I can text you the details about the light music night."

"Yeah, she said calmly, like this wasn't an emotional rollercoaster like it was for me (I could see it, though, her hands shook as she typed her number in.)

"Thanks," I said, not able to stop myself from grinning from ear to ear, and after she left with her usual lazy wave I changed her contact to _ e, _adding a space between every letter just because it looked fancy and poetic and hell, what about her bluntness and piercing glare and general dislike of normalcy _wasn't_?

Annie _was _poetry, Annie was Shakespeare - written beautifully and carefully, in a certain format with all the matching syllables and rhyming verse, and I would continue but I don't really know where this metaphor is going so let's suffice to say that I was going to miss her over break. Yes. That's about it.

See you in January.

* * *

**Hella long chapter, for me at least. I feel like that was long and winding, probably because I wrote it over a whole month lol. **


End file.
